Through two periods on Saturday night, all signs pointed in the right direction for Western Michigan University to extend its first-place lead in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings.

The Broncos scored less than two minutes into the game to take an early lead over Bowling Green and they killed a five-minute major penalty followed by 1:45 of a five-on-three BGSU without two of their leaders.

WMU shut down all five of Bowling Green’s power plays and outshot the Falcons 29-22, but the Broncos could not shut the door on the CCHA's last-place team with an insurance goal.

With hope still in the air on BGSU’s bench, the Falcons tied the score early in the final period and netted the game-winner later in the third to pull out a stunning 2-1 win over the visiting Broncos.

Western Michigan coach Andy Murray said his team didn’t take the loss lightly.

“Losing sucks,” Murray said. “They’re devastated with the loss. This feels exactly the same as every loss this year. Every time we lose, we’re devastated. You get up in the morning and you realize that you’re battling every single night and no one told us this would be easy. There’s a difference – If you don’t compete and you don’t play hard and you don’t battle, then you go after your team. That wasn’t the case tonight.”

The Broncos (13-10-5, 10-7-3 CCHA) fell from first place in the CCHA standings into a three-way tie for second place with Miami, a 6-0 winner Saturday over Northern Michigan, and Ohio State, which tied and lost a shootout at Lake Superior State.

Ferris State, with a 4-3 win over Michigan State, moves into first place in the standings with 37 points.

Senior forward Greg Squires scored a power-play goal 1:21 into the contest on a nice feed from freshman Will Kessel to give the Broncos all the momentum early.

It would not last, though.

WMU lost senior captain Ian Slater shortly after the goal in the first when he suffered an injury after getting hit from behind. Murray said the seriousness of the injury wasn’t known by the game’s end.

Junior defenseman Luke Witkowski was whistled for a major penalty for contact to the head and he received a game misconduct, which disqualified him for the remainder of the contest.

“I thought our team played as hard as we have all year. I thought we battled our tails off,” Murray said. “We lost one of our defenseman and a leader early in the game and we lost our captain early in the game.”

Greg Squires

Squires said the loss hurt more knowing how hard he and his teammates fought to overcome the loss of their captain and assistant captain.

“It hurts a lot, especially because we fought hard tonight and did a lot of things right, but Bowling Green played hard tonight,” Squires said. “They came out with the win.”

Camden Wojtala scored 6:10 into the third period to tie the score.

Later in the third, WMU came up empty on a power play on a power play that started 9:46 into the final frame.

Bowling Green’s James McIntosh put the Falcons ahead with a goal 13:51 into the third, but WMU again failed to respond on a power play with 1:50 left on the clock.

The Broncos had a six-on-four advantage for the game’s last 1:22 when they replaced goalie Frank Slubowski for an extra attacker.

“I think we had a lot of opportunities to score,” Squires said of the team’s offense overall in the game. “Bowling Green worked hard all game. We needed to bury our chances.”

Western Michigan finished 1-for-9 on the power play.

Murray, who said he thought freshman defenseman Garrett Haar and Jordan Oesterle played their best games of the season, added that he thought the Broncos were doing everything they could to extend their lead in the final 20:00.

“We were all over them,” Murray said. “We hit two goal posts in the third period. We had a clear-cut two-on-one. You know, the other teams in this league want to win, too. Anybody that saw this game tonight saw a Bronco team that played their hearts out.”

Andrew Hammond made 28 saves in goal for BGSU, while Slubowski stopped 20 shots for WMU, which won the faceoff margain 41-26.

WMU plays its next four games at home with a series against Alaska-Fairbanks next Friday and Saturday and a matchup with Ohio State on Feb. 10-11.